Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
The administrator of one of Tucumcari’s healthcare clinics said during a Quay County Commission meeting Monday she’s been turned down once for more shipments of COVID-19 vaccine and anticipates she also won’t get any this week, despite a sizable backlog of patients eligible for them.
C. Renee Hayoz, administrator of Presbyterian Medical Services, said her East Main Street clinic received 100 doses of the Moderna vaccine shortly before New Year’s Day and quickly gave them to healthcare workers and frontline first responders.
She said her request for 100 more doses last week was denied. She said she requested 200 doses this week, but “it’s likely we won’t get it.”
Hayoz expressed frustration at the situation because she has 160 patients on standby to receive the vaccine.
She said those patients both are part of vaccine rollout Phase 1A — medical workers at high or medium risk of the virus — and Phase 1B — residents age 75 and older, frontline essential workers, people with underlying conditions that put them at risk and vulnerable populations that include nursing home residents.
Hayoz said no reason was given for the denial of additional vaccine shipments. She surmised because the Tucumcari clinic was the first of clinics statewide to use all its initial allotment, other clinics must to use their allotments before Tucumcari receives more.
She said she tried to get a transfer of vaccines unused at other clinics, to no avail.
“I thought because we’re in rural New Mexico, we’d get more of it,” she said.
Commission Chairman Franklin McCasland praised Hayoz for her efforts to acquire vaccines for county residents. She also praised county emergency management coordinator Daniel Zamora’s assistance in that endeavor.
Trigg Memorial Hospital also has administered 111 doses of the Pfizer version of the vaccine to its medical staff. The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines each require two doses administered several weeks apart for full efficacy.
COVID-19 has infected more than 360 people in Quay County, with eight deaths, since the pandemic began in the U.S. early last year.